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- The People Behind The Sacrifice
Army Staff Sgt. Darrel D. Kasson
Died March 4, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
43, of Florence, Ariz.; assigned to the 259th Engineer Company, Arizona National Guard; died March 4 in Tikrit, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle at Bayji, Iraq.
Arizona Army National Guard soldier killed in Iraq
The Associated Press
PHOENIX — An Arizona Army National Guardsman from Florence was killed in Iraq when a bomb exploded near his vehicle, authorities said.
Staff Sgt. Darrel Kasson, 43, died March 4, according to the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs. His death was announced March 7.
Kasson worked as a corrections officer for the Arizona Department of Corrections for 18 years.
His wife, Lori, said she spoke with her husband by phone for about 20 minutes March 2, and he had expressed worry about his mission. “He just felt funny about this one,” she said, and the couple prayed together over the phone.
The Tucson native was deployed with the Arizona Army National Guard’s 259th Engineer Company, based in Phoenix. He was a member of the Alpha Battery, 2-180th Field Artillery Battalion.
The unit was mobilized in August and sent to Camp Shelby in Mississippi for pre-deployment training. Kasson was then sent to Iraq in November. He worked at the DOC up until he was called to duty.
Corrections officers had spent the past two weeks putting together care packages filled with hygiene items, food and candy that Kasson had requested.
“He’s the kind of guy you could call up and tell him to do something and it would get done,” said John Hernandez, a corrections officer who was Kasson’s supervisor for two years.
His wife also said Kasson enjoyed helping others in the community and at Florence Baptist Church with repair and remodeling work.
Funeral arrangements are pending. A public memorial service at Florence High School gymnasium is planned for March 12 where the corrections department will retire Kasson’s badge.
Kasson is also survived by a daughter, Lisa Varnes; two sons, Jeremy and Dale; and two grandchildren.